Shanghai: Out with the old!

Do I ever work? The answer is a resounding NO. And I love it.
After an amazing time in Australia, I came back to Korea, rested a bit, went to school for a week (not to teach, but just to sit and "attend") and then left for China.

I know everyone says "How did you get Steph?", and "You sure are lucky" and "You don't deserve her, you tall..." (Yeah, some people go a little overboard), but she outdid herself this time. Steph planned all the flights, hotels, the sleeper train and the sights to see in China! All I did was show up and pose for pictures. Sweet deal!

Shanghai is only 2 hours by plane, but it takes 5+ hours to get to the Seoul airport from our town, so no flight is a short one. Again, no one minds any inconvenience when they are heading off on vcation. We arrived in Shanghai, and immediately noticed what everyone told us: Everything looks new and everything is built on a massive scale. The city of 18 million is striving to be the financial center and the prime international destination in China, and all I can say is - Wow.

After a 150Y ($25)/40 minute cab ride from the biggest airport I have ever seen (and a equal sized addition almost completed to its side) we arrived at our Hotel; The Panorama (31°14'46.70"N 121°29'12.94"E). Located right in the Bund district, on the Huangpu River, we were in the middle of everything! To make matters even better, we were even upgraded to a suite, which was far better than my fears a week earlier when we heard the hotel had a recent "change in management" and was unable to confirm our reservations!

Every morning we ate breakfast at the top floor restaurant, overlooking the Bund and Pudong districts. It was unreal. We spent our 4 days walking the riverfront, shopping on Nanjing street (with every other person in China), sitting in People's Park and People's Square (31°13'52.69"N 121°28'11.17"E), braving the crowds at the "Old Shanghai" Yuyuan markets (31°13'47.33"N 121°29'11.54"E) (you begin to see that Markets were a focal point for one of us!!!), gazing at the Oriental Pearl(31°14'29.31"N 121°29'43.68"E) and taking riverboats up the Huangpu. Steph even took me up to the 56th floor of the Jin Mao Building (31°14'14.28"N 121°30'4.61"E) (The tallest hotel in the world) for my birthday dinner!

Shanghai is developing at a ridiculous pace. Blocks upon blocks of Hutongs (old traditional houses) lie in semi-gutted conditions, walls broken down and roofs removed to make them inhospitable, clearly in wait for another enormous apartment complex to take over the land. The progress of this can be seen clearly in pictures displayed in the center of the new financial district of Pudong(31°14'22.96"N 121°30'7.78"E). Pictures taken every year show the "Out with the old" process from 1993 and on... Amazing.


Visiting Shanghai on Lunar New Year is a wild experience to say the least. Lucky for us, being as tall as we are, the crowds practically parted as we walked through them. Unlike in Korea, the stares were usually followed with a smile, as well as a friendly "Nihow". It was an incredible place, but still exhausting.


Check out the rest of our pictures!

World class Sydney

After the beautiful city of Melbourne, I flew to Sydney where I was picked up by my friends, Paul and Amanda. They have been living in Sydney for over 3 years, hanging out in the posh Bondi Beach (33°52'41.75"S 151°16'14.33"E), where a house that looks to be worth $200k run well over a million dollars, and were kind enough to put me up and feed me! So nice they are! (Well, at least Amanda is nice)

If you like gorgeous beaches, beautiful people and a fantastic walkable city, Sydney is the place for you. I walked the breathtaking Eastern Coast Trail (33°53'32.65"S 151°16'35.32"E), past 4 of the best beaches you are going to see, took the ferry downtown, walked through the incredible RBG that sits right next to the downtown area and the Sydney Opera House (33°51'24.85"S 151°12'54.33"E) and climbed the Harbour bridge (33°51'17.64"S 151°12'33.37"E)(opting for the $9 view rather than the $160 guided, tied off tour!)

Paul and Amanda were awesome! They took time to take me to the Blue Mountains to the west, into the Jenolan caves (33°49'8.92"S 150° 1'25.95"E) and to the 3 Sisters National Monument. As well, they took me out for Steak and Brontosaurus Ribs (which I ate with a bib!) for my 16th birthday. They even let me take a crapload of cash from them in a couple of poker games we played while I was there. Now that is the mark of true friends.

In the end, it was time for me to get on my way, but not without adding Sydney to my list of Great world cities... The service still sucks though. Ha!

Australia at Last!!!

While I understand why I've been getting all the flack for the poor job of posting I've been doing, people gotta understand... I've been having too much fun! So here is my trip to Australia in a nutshell!

I started off in Melbourne (37°49'4.74"S 144°58'6.50"E) after nearly 24 hours of travel - 3.5 hours by train to Seoul, 2 9 hour flights to Singapore and finally Melbourne, 2 hours for the plane transfer and 2 hours to fix a "10 minute" mechanical issue. It really is funny, though, how amicable you are when you're on your way somewhere sunny. Vacations bring out the best in people... well, me anyways. One of my flights sat me next to the "disgruntled and this country" ex-ESL teacher, on his way home after 2 years abroad. While he looked a little like Russel Crowe, unbalanced in his own right, my new friend seriously believed that his staring out the window, directly at the wings, was somehow keeping the plane from plummeting to the ground. He left the job to me when he was forced to answer nature's call; an honour which I promptly scuttled by burying my head in a magazine and imagining dive bombing planes engulfed in flames. Take that Russel Crowe!

Melbourne is a sprawling city of 3.7 million people centered around the beautiful Yarra river. It boomed during the the gold rush of the late 1800's, and still maintains a awesome mix of old and new architecture that is well blended throughout the city - except for the new development in the Docklands to the west that is, which I don't much care for. The downtown hugs the Yarra with street cars dominating the roads and coffee shops with their own $10k cappuccino machines are slotted absolutely everywhere... making this a very walkable and compact downtown area.

Melbournes Botanical Gardens (37°49'44.53"S 144°58'50.52"E), War memorial and slew of nearly free museums were unbelievable. Federation Square is an great meeting spot at the core of the city. Unfortunately, the Aquarium was a stinker as was the entire restaurant experience; food, service and price... which really hurts because I was definitely indulging. Korea obviously doesn't offer the same eating options as you get back home, but the fact that servers give indifferent service for a high price and mediocre quality is pretty well documented.

Near the end of my stay in Melbourne, I took a tour along the Great Ocean Road to see an Australian rainforest and the 12 Apostles (38°38'56.17"S 143° 4'5.73"E) (there are only 9 left) on a day 20 degrees C colder than the day before (I froze my rear off). What an incredible place! On to Sydney!

Check out my pictures and movies.

Catastrophic Failure!

It always happens... when you are at your most vulnerable, your computer will find a way to go down in flames.
And so it happened, after my glorious trip to Australia and tons of memories from around Korea, that the hand of doom would reach down and screw me. That hand, I will call you... "Norton Antivirus". Yep, in the process of upgrading to Norton Systemworks 2007, I had to uninstall my 2003 version. While doing this, Norton decided it would be nice to corrupt the boot sector of my laptop, rendering the laptop totally useless until I wiped the hard drive clean and started fresh.

Who needs memories anyway, right Norton?

In saying that, I am encouraging everyone to use PC-cillin or AVG for antivirus tools. They are just as good and won't destroy your life.

Thanks Norton!

Back to it!

After a short hiatus, including a couple of weeks in Australia, I am back in the swing of things! Lucky for us, we have one week of school before Steph and I head off to Shanghai and Beijing for a week.

Things I have learned from Australia:

It is possible for some people to not own a jacket of any kind - the weather is that nice. I have 4.

Service in Australia (waiters, shop keepers) is amazingly bad. I guess if you pay servers $17/hour and don't use tipping, you get indifferent workers, and angry 6'7" Canadians.

Food and drink are expensive (compared to Canada)

The weather is unbelievably nice almost all the time(unless you get caught there in the rainy season) but the Australians still only call it "fine".

There are over 1,000 creatures in Australia that can kill you. They can get you anywhere at any time. Don't swim, walk, eat, breathe or go to the bathroom without watching your back!

More to come!